Definition
Passenger vehicles are the cars, motorcycles, coaches and caravans that board a ferry together with their occupants. They are counted in units, separately from the new vehicles that travel as cargo.
It is the measure of travel by car across the sea: holidays on the islands, journeys between mainland Spain and the autonomous cities and, above all, the crossing of the Strait in summer. Its trend follows that of regular-line passengers.
Port statistics publish the two series separately. Adding them together would give a meaningless figure, because vehicles as cargo depend on the car factories and passenger vehicles on how many people travel.
The figure · August 2026
Passenger vehicles (the cars carried on ferries)
5.16 million vehicles
Year to date · January–August 2026
2.32 million new vehicles
August 2026 only
239,373 new vehicles
First port
487,477 new vehicles
Vehicle traffic in Spanish ports in 2026
The full ranking, the trend and the table are in the indicator Vehicle traffic in Spanish ports. To explore the data in detail, see PortStats · vehicles as cargo, annual series.